And he's getting a roasting too; here's a selection from the smorgasbord of comments:
- The Baron says:
I cant decide what makes this so tragic – the plagiarism or how horribly unfunny it is?
- Si says:
@Whafe, I suggest you look up the definition of original. It’s a good job Trevor didn’t post this next month, he could have been prosecuted under the Copy Right Infringment bill.
- Inverness says:
Why dont you concentrate on what your paid for Trevor.
That is to represent the few Labour supporters left.
Leave the comedy to unemployed activists , which is what youll be soon if you dont raise your game - annie says:
It’s not copying another blogger I object to so much as the clumsiness of the effort. C-
Poor Trevor. He hasn't had a good last few weeks. There was a dreadful month of polls after Labour's game-changing tax policy was released, Labour got ambushed on its filibuster last week, and to add insult to injury, Lockwood Smith twice described Mallard's questions and points of order as "inept", which they were.
It's not going to get better any time soon either. The August polls will soon start to filter out, and then of course there's the Great Cycle Challenge on Sunday 21 August when we might just happen to be in Auckland! After that the Rugby World Cup begins, and somewhere amongst all his other preoccupations (including blogging and tweeting), he has Labour's General Election campaign to manage.
Let's hope that Trevor and Labour have some original ideas come the election. In the meantime Cameron Slater will doubtless be reflecting on how imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!
He shoots; he scores! It's another SMOG (Social Media Own Goal) for Trevor Mallard!
UPDATE: Just to continue with the footballing theme here, John Harteveld from Stuff puts the boot in:
Sigh. Another day and the Labour Party takes yet another turn for the cringe-makingly desperate. The party's chief strategist, their sharpest political mind and the chap responsible for winning the election campaign has this morning come up with this rather lame attempt at humour.
Trevor Mallard's theft of an overused and not terribly funny concept from a right-wing blogger is just a bit sad.If it was an isolated example of an odd attack on the PM, it wouldn't rate a mention.
But ever since the intellectual excitement and esprit de corps that accompanied Labour's tax policy announcement died down a fortnight ago, a steady drip feed of rather juvenile stunts - many of them played out unthinkingly online - has been issued from a few in the Labour caucus.
Mallard and the Dunedin South MP Clare Curran are the chief mischief makers. A missive from Curran last week seemed to subtly encourage readers to make some sort of a link between John Key and the 1991 US invasion of Iraq, on the grounds that a PR company hired by Tourism NZ to secure a spot for Key on the Letterman show was the same firm that had been criticised for its role "as mastermind for the Kuwaiti campaign''. Good grief.
Oh dear; oh dear; of dear ...
